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Will NBC’s European Sports Gamble Pay Off?

The Tour de France. The Scottish Open. Formula 1. The
English Premier League.

Is that the summer calendar of European sports or NBC’s
sports lineup for July and August?

It’s both.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Comcast’s gamble on the
NBC Sports Network, and NBC Sports proper, wasn’t supposed to take them
overseas.

With the NHL firmly established, the sky seemed the limit
when the NBC Sports Network was officially born out of Versus. The sports media
was smitten. The
rumors began swirling. NBC started making their pitches. Yet one after
another, they failed.

The Pac-12? Thwarted by a rare Fox/ESPN partnership.

The NFL? The league decided to keep the added Thursday night
games on its own network.

MLB? Stayed with Fox.

The Big East? Disintegrated before it even had a chance.

It reached the point where even the Mountain West left the
channel – leaving it with no major college football or college basketball. When
the NHL went dark in late 2012, the gaping holes in NBCSN’s programming became
painfully evident. There just wasn’t anything there.

It became a punchline when Fox, almost out of nowhere, made
a bold move to be the ESPN competitor that NBCSN failed to become. Armed with a
plethora of valuable commodities spread out on Fox-owned channels, Fox Sports 1
will launch in August with far more live programming than NBCSN has ever been
able to produce.

Facing a daunting, nearly impossible challenge, NBCSN has
quietly been making the only move it could to remain relevant. You hear the
phrase all the time in business – “emerging markets.” With ESPN entrenched in
the biggest sporting events in North America – Monday Night Football, the NBA
Playoffs, the new College Football playoff, etc. – they are set. As I mentioned
in my piece on their lack
of interest in the new American Athletic Conference, they no longer need to
find emerging sports. They have the emerged.

Similarly, Fox
Sports 1 is going after the big fish, flush with cash and a stable of
ready-for-consumption properties that have already established an audience. Fox
Sports 1 is not going to waste its time building up leagues. Rupert Murdoch
doesn’t succeed by enacting 5-year plans. He succeeds by the here and now.

So Comcast and NBCSN had to regroup. The major North
American sports are accounted for – and will be for the foreseeable future. The
channel has a league to serve as its backbone in the NHL. And the recent
success of the NHL is now the blueprint for NBCSN’s possible success.

The channel looked across the pond and found what it was
looking for – precious live sporting events. Starting in August, NBCSN will
bombard you with English Premier League football. Since this spring, the
channel has been all over Formula 1. This summer, its coverage of the Tour de
France has been extensive and extraordinary.

NBC, as a network and an organization, has basically become
a laughingstock – a distance fourth in the broadcast battles and frequently fifth
behind even Univision. It has consistently failed to produce sitcoms and
dramas that people watch. I love Parks & Recreation but it gets about 1/6th
the audience the Big Bang Theory does.

But NBC has always done two things extremely well – sports
and news*. Its nightly newscast with Brian Williams is still the undisputed
champion and when there is a huge news event – think the Boston Marathon
bombing – people will always turn to NBC News first.

*If this were 2011, I
would’ve added in “morning shows.” Then they made Ann Curry cry and now we
can’t watch Today anymore.

Likewise, its sports department has always produced
top-notch coverage with a stable of big, championship events. With the
development of NBCSN, NBC Sports figured out that even if its primetime lineup
wasn’t of Seinfeldian glory – it could still build up a sports league.

The NHL is now riding the wave of being the golden child at
a major network. Its ratings are trending far above anything that Fox or ESPN
were able to produce. They just completed the most-watched Stanley Cup Final
ever. Yes, as in ever in history.

Will NBC’s magic touch spill over to its European sports,
namely the EPL?

Based on early returns, I have to say yes. NBC is promoting
the league more vigorously than Fox Soccer or ESPN ever did. I don’t watch NBC
often but when I do, I almost always see an EPL ad. The date is firmly
implanted in my brain – August 17.

There will be interest when the new season kicks off. Will
the momentum carry throughout the season? Will NBC be able to navigate the
treacherous trap between educating the masses on soccer and providing
meaningful insight to the real fans?

There are many questions to be answered but one has already
been – how will NBCSN compete with ESPN and Fox Sports 1?

The long-term plan is obvious. The NHL is NBCSN’s
thoroughbred that will keep them in the game – if not regularly competing with
ESPN and Fox Sports 1 – until the next round of sports media contracts come up.
It will use the same formula on boosting the NHL’s ratings on the EPL and
Formula 1, which can be used in tandem to beef up the sagging ratings of Major
League Soccer and Indy Car Racing.

NBCSN is in survival mode for the next few years. Thanks to
its European imports, they have a fighting chance to stay relevant.